North fails to contain Woodstock's offense in loss

Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison and Matt Ryan and Julio Jones are just a few of them.

On Friday Night in Cumming, it was Woodstock’s Garrett Bass and Noah Frith, who connected on three touchdowns in a 49-17 win over North Forsyth.

“The offensive line and the wide receivers made plays all night long,” Bass said. “The line didn’t give up any pressure. I was able to get the ball where it needed to go on time. We just made great plays.”

Bass would get the best of North’s (3-2) Ben Bales, going 33-for-45 for 451 yards and five touchdowns yards. Frith grabbed 10 receptions for 109 yards and three scores.

“I like any matchup with Frith,” Bass said. “Any corner that’s lined up on him, I’ll take a shot with him. Tonight, we took advantage of it and he just made plays.”

“That’s what we’ve been waiting for,” Woodstock Coach Brent Budde said. “He’s a had a couple of games where things didn’t click. …Tonight it clicked.”

In a game of pass-happy quarterbacks, Bass found Frith for two scores in the second quarter, one for 45 yards and a 20-yard strike just before halftime. Frith would get a third score in the 3rd quarter on a five yard pass.

From there, it was all Louis Hall. He reeled in touchdown passes for 75 and 49 yards en route to a 12 reception, 223-yard performance for the Wolverines.

Bales, who came in to the night No. 8th in the state in terms of passing yards with 1,097 yards, was 22-for-38 for 317 yards and two touchdowns. He connected with Tristan Howard for a 60-yard touchdown pass just before the end of the first quarter.

Howard had five catches for 141 yards.

“Our guys came out ready to play but we missed some opportunities early,” Raiders coach Robert Craft said. “When you play good teams, you have to cash in. The plays were there, and in the last few weeks we’ve been making them. Tonight, we did not.”

Ryan Martin extended Woodstock’s lead to 28-10 after back-to-back rushes of 17 and 16 yards to begin the fourth quarter.

“We lost some of our fundamentals,” Craft said. “We had a few big turnovers and we can’t do that against a good playoff football team. We didn’t tackle as well as we needed to.”

Tight end Nicky Dalmolin had North’s final touchdown, a 46-yard pass from Bales in the fourth quarter.

After Hall’s long touchdown pass, Martin ran for a 67-yard touchdown to take a 42-17 in the final 12 minutes.

“We have three running backs we have confidence in,” Budde said. “They did a great job and Ryan came in fresh and he made plays. We want to run the ball late in the game and he allowed us to do that.”

Despite the outcome, Craft is confident his team is on the right track as the Raiders open Region 5-7A play in two weeks at Forsyth Central.

“Our offense is ready to go,” Craft said. “Our defense played lights out for a few quarters. We got a little tired. … I am really excited about where we’re going. Everything is right in front of us with region play.”